Edinburgh's Hogmanay is back for 2021

Edinburgh’s Hogmanay is launched as a four day festival and a celebration of the changing of the year.

• Tickets will go on sale on Tuesday 26 October for the Torchlight Procession, Party at the Bells, and the Scottish music programme at Greyfriars Kirk. 
• The iconic Hogmanay fireworks display returns for midnight on 31 December,
• 7,500 tickets will be available at a discounted price for Party at the Bells for those with an EH postcode.

Edinburgh’s Hogmanay is back to celebrate the end of 2021 and the new year with an unforgettable experience for Edinburgh and beyond.

This year’s Hogmanay programme has been revealed, including the new Party at the Bells on Princes Street and the return of the iconic Edinburgh Castle fireworks display. 

Tickets go on sale at 10am on Tuesday 26 October through the Edinburgh’s Hogmanay website for Party at the Bells, the Torchlight Procession and a fantastic Scottish music programme with Dougie McLean, Eddie Reader and Breabach at Greyfriars Kirk. As part of Party at the Bells, there are 7,500 tickets available at a discounted price for EH postcode holders.

In 2021, Hogmanay celebrations have been reimagined and include:

The Torchlight Procession will ignite Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations on Thursday, 30 December. Participants will collect their torches from three locations around the city: Waverley Bridge, West Parliament Square or Bristo Square and will then start the Procession on the Royal Mile between North Bridge and St Mary’s Street. The family friendly event will be slightly different to previous years, with the procession spread out between 4pm and 9pm, allowing locals and visitors alike to blaze through the Scottish capital in a fun and safe environment. Tickets with a torch are £15. Along the procession route, flames and light installations will illuminate the experience. Underbelly are working with local Celtic Fire Theatre company Pyroceltica, who led the procession in 2019 and Double Take Projections. At the end of the Procession on Holyrood Park, participants will be asked to light a slow burning candle and then leave. As more and more candles are lit, an image will emerge over the course of the event, which will be filmed and streamed on edinburghshogmanay.com.

Scottish Music Programme – Wednesday, 29 – Friday, 31 December. Taking place at Greyfriars Kirk, tickets are from £25. Performances include one of Scotland’s most skilled and imaginative contemporary folk acts, Breabach on 29 December, Scottish singer-songwriter, Dougie Maclean OBE on 30 December and three x BRIT Award winner, Eddi Reader OBE on 31 December.

Party at the Bells – Friday, 31 December, 10pm-1am. A fresh take on the world-famous Edinburgh’s Hogmanay Street Party. This year the event will be for a reduced audience of 30,000 people to enjoy the countdown celebrations, starting at 10pm. 

Artists will be announced in coming weeks and will perform on the Ross Bandstand to 3,500 people in the gardens under the Castle, and will be streamed on to a series of screens to the audience on Princes Street.  

The iconic midnight fireworks display will be back at Edinburgh Castle, cementing Scotland once again as the home of Hogmanay. 

One of the world’s greatest street theatre companies, Netherlands-based Close-Act Theatre will collaborate with a variety of Scottish performers to animate the street in spectacular style. The Party at the Bells street theatre programme is supported by Scottish Government, City of Edinburgh Council, and Creative Scotland’s PLACE fund. 

Garden Access and Street Access tickets will be on sale from 10am on Tuesday 26 October with 7,500 tickets available at a discounted price for those with an EH postcode. Street Access tickets are £25.50, with the EH discounted price being £17.50.

50p from every Party at the Bells ticket sold will be donated to the Brain Tumour Charity, an organisation Underbelly rases money for year-round. Brain tumours are the biggest cancer killer for children and adults under 40 and increased funding for research is desperately needed. Around 500 children and young people in the UK are diagnosed each year but diagnosis times for childhood brain tumours are longer in the UK than in many other countries. 

Message from the Skies from 1 January 2022. Edinburgh’s Hogmanay’s emblematic project that fuses the work of Scottish writers, artists and musicians will return from 1 January 2022. Full details to be announced in due course.

Working closely with the City of Edinburgh Council and Scottish Government, Underbelly is meticulously planning Edinburgh’s Hogmanay in the context of Covid-19 and is dedicated to creating a safe and fun environment for the 2021 celebrations. Ticketholders for the Torchlight Procession and the Party at the Bells, who are aged 18 and over, will need to have a Covid-19 passport and to show it to enter the events. 

As part of Edinburgh’s Hogmanay’s ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability, and alongside efforts to reduce the environmental impact of the festival itself, we are again inviting our audiences to offset their journey to Edinburgh’s Hogmanay in 2021. All donations to the environmental fund, which are calculated in accordance with the method of transport and length of journey, are made at the point of purchase when booking tickets via edinburghshogmanay.com and will be used to create new woodlands in Scotland in partnership with Forest Carbon.  All woodlands are independently audited and certified under the UK Woodland Carbon Code. 

Edinburgh is the world’s festival city with internationally renowned festivals year-round and Edinburgh’s Hogmanay kicks them off at the beginning of every year.

Edinburgh’s Hogmanay 2021 is supported by City of Edinburgh Council, Scottish Government and City of Edinburgh Council’s PLACE fund and Creative Scotland through the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals EXPO fund, all working together to create a bold and reimagined Edinburgh’s Hogmanay for Scotland.

Underbelly Co-Directors, Charlie Wood and Ed Bartlam, said:

The 2021 Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations have been reimagined to offer a safe and a fantastic experience for Edinburgh and beyond - telling the world that “We Are Back Together”. Through the Torchlight Procession, Party at the Bells and the iconic fireworks, this year's Hogmanay event has been designed to deliver a celebration for the people of Edinburgh and our visitors, and to place Scotland at the forefront of the world’s new year events. We can't wait to help bring everyone back together again.

Cllr Cammy Day, Depute Leader of City of Edinburgh Council said:

Edinburgh is the home of Hogmanay and it is fantastic that this year as we mark its 29th year, we see the return of in-person events and that celebrations will return to the streets of the Capital. There is an unmissable Hogmanay programme this year, which will support economic recovery across the wider city area, safely bring people back together and welcome in the new year with a renewed sense of optimism for great times ahead.

For more information and tickets, please visit Edinburgh's Hogmanay website.